TU Graz Professor Erich Leitner to Present Dale Bumpers College Seminar Today

Han-Seok Seo

All students, staff and faculty members are invited to attend a special seminar organized by the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. Erich Leitner, university professor of analytical chemistry and food chemistry at the Graz University of Technology, Graz, in Austria will be speaking. Leitner holds a professorship for "Analytics of food and food contact materials" at the Graz University of Technology. Since 2020, he also serves as an adjunct faculty in the Department of Food Science at the U of A.

The seminar, entitled "How can food chemistry support local producers to survive in a challenging environment?" will be held at 4 p.m. today, Thursday, Nov. 11, in room 0143 of the Maple Hill Residence Hall (MHSR) building. The presentation will also be delivered via virtual platform (see the link below) hosted by Han-Seok Seo, an associate professor in the U of A Department of Food Science. "Dr. Leitner's presentation will give us a big picture of food chemistry in a wide spectrum of agricultural, food-related and consumer-centered sciences. His presentation will also touch climate and sustainability-related issues," Seo said.

Leitner earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in organic trace and technical chemistry from the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, the Graz University of Technology. He is currently head of the Institute of Food Chemistry and Technology at the Graz University of Technology, where he and his colleagues focus on human sensory analysis and flavor chemistry using state-of-the-art instrumentation and advanced analytical skills. Leitner has been actively collaborating with numerous farmers, breeders and producers in local, national and international communities and industries. He also provides training courses in analytical instrumentation and sensory analysis to Austrian and European food industries and commodities.

Since 2016, there has been an active agreement between the Graz University of Technology and the U of A, in an effort led by the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. The two universities have strong collaborations by hosting students and faculty members from the partner university and co-organizing summer schools in either Graz (in 2017 and 2019) or Fayetteville (in 2018). Both universities are seeking an opportunity to resume this summer school collaboration, which was paused by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Leitner is visiting the U of A from Nov. 9 to 16 to further strengthen collaborations between the universities. More specifically, Leitner is going to provide multiple presentations at the Dale Bumpers College (Nov. 11), guest lectures in honors and graduate courses (Nov. 10-11), the flavAR workshop (Nov. 12) and the Food Science Department seminar (Nov. 15). He is also going to visit Arkansas vineries in Altus and the Fruit Research Station in Clarksville, as well as meet food industry professionals in Northwest Arkansas. Finally, Leitner will introduce international programs of the Graz University of Technology to students, staff and faculty members during his visit.

Virtual attendance link of the Dale Bumpers Seminar:

• Meeting ID: 822 7346 8882
• Passcode: 2UMd*5^h